Chapter 14: She's Staying Where?
Ichigo groaned in the middle of math class just as Rukia's phone went off. Verena blinked in surprise as she too felt it, a hollow was nearby. It's not a very strong one. She thought as she continued her classwork. Out of her peripheral vision she saw Ichigo toss back Kon's soul mod candy. Taking soul form Ichigo quickly took off out of the classroom window towards the park.
"Jeesh." Kon complained quietly. "He just had to leave me in this boring class."
"Kon, hush." Verena chastised the soul mod.
That was when Kon noticed Rukia was sitting in the classroom. Feeling suddenly nervous, he quietly whispered to Verena. "Psst. What's she doing here?" he asked her.
"Getabushi sent her here." she whispered back as she reached over to Ichigo's desk and snatched up his notebook and began taking notes for them both. Kon wasn't much of a note taker or a test passing kind of guy. He was handy to have in a pinch and could fight, as long as he didn't get hit on the head or in the stomach. He could be reliable, though he was a big pervert. Turning her attention back to the teacher, Verena ignored the itchy feeling of needing to go help her brother.
Behind her Rukia wrote down the events of the day in a report format for Captain Ukitake. If I ever get back to Soul Society I need to ensure that my captain in well informed about these two, no- She thought back to the man they called Getabushi. She knew who he really was, Urahara Kisuke, who was wanted in the connection of the deaths and hollowfication of Captain Shinji Hirako, Captain Rojuro Otoribashi, Captain Kensei Muguruma, Captain Love Aikawa and the four lieutenants that were with them of the night that Urahara Kisuke and his companion Tessai Tsukabishi. There are four people I must watch now. She tapped her pencil on her booklet and frowned. She'd discover both men along with two children Ururu and Jinta living in the candy shoten. They're not even trying to hide. She paused in tapping her pencil. Do they want to be found? She shook her head. No. Then why are they not in hiding? I've got to find out what Urahara's connection with these two is.
Ichigo sighed as he landed on the ground after having run using flash step to get to the park. Huh. There's usually a child playing nearby. He thought this as he entered the park. The only thing he could hear was the wind. Feeling with his senses, he felt something rushing towards him from the right side of the park, near the playground. It was then he saw the giant spider-like hollow chasing after the spirit child of a five year old boy. He'd seen the child a few times before.
I've gotta help him. He felt both of his inner spirits agree with him on his assessment. He couldn't let that boy die. Jumping over the barrier fence, Ichigo pulled Zangetsu off of his back and slammed the blade into the face of the hollow without much thought of his safety. Blood splattered onto the ground and around the hollow's now cracked mask.
The boy gave a gasp of surprise. He had thought that he was going to die for good this time. Putting his hands over his head he gave a slight cry of fear as he felt pressure pushing against his body.
Slashing in a downward stroke, Ichigo sliced the beast in half. The monster vanished into dust. Looking down upon the frightened child spirit Ichigo bent down to him. "Hey kid," he spoke causing the boy to look up at him before smiling through his tears. "You okay?"
The boy nodded. "Thanks to you mister." he answered as he turned himself around and sat in front of Ichigo.
"Good." Iconic touched the boy's head. "You know it's not safe here like it use to be." He looked off into the distance. "Maybe you'd be happier somewhere else."
"Where?" the boy asked curiously.
"I want to send you to Soul Society," Ichigo told him but saw the sudden look of fear upon the child's face. "but only if you agree to go."
The boy looked off towards the playground. "I like to play, but I have nobody to play with anymore." He looked back towards Ichigo. "Will I have friends there?"
Ichigo scratched the back of his neck. "Sure, if you know how to make friends." he told the boy nervously. "I've never actually been there myself." The boy cocked his head at that. "But I've heard good things about the place.
Really King? He heard his hollow ask him. All the visoreds hate that place.
They're bias to that. he countered back to the white haired doppelganger. Yoruichi has good things to say about it. Plus, it has to be safer than this place.
He was met with silence for a moment. True. The hollow agreed before sinking back into the background.
"Okay mister." the child agreed. "I'll go. Maybe I'll find my grandfather there. He died before I did."
Ichigo smiled at the boys optimistic outlook. "Okay." he said as he tapped the butt end of his sword's hilt to the child's forehead. The five year old child glowed brightly before becoming translucent and disappearing into a burst of energy that vanished on the wind. Placing Zangetsu upon his back he turned around and smiled at the two people standing there. "Yo, Shinji. Rose."
The short haired blond grinned at him. "Thought we sensed something going on here." he stated.
The long haired blond pulled his sunglasses off of his eyes. "We were in the area and thought we'd check in to see what the commotion was all about."
"Minor level hollow." Ichigo told the two. "Though you might want to be careful about walking around for awhile."
Both raised their eyebrows at him. "Why? What's going on?" Shinji inquire as he pulled his newsboy cap off of his head before inspecting it.
"A Shinigami is in town." he said. "She got hurt protecting Karin. Getabushi fixed her up, but she's not any better. Something about flooding her Shinigami powers in the process, though the hollow that attacked her did not leave any trace of itself behind on her. So, I'm not sure what happened."
"Urahara helped her?" Rose inquired sounding surprised. Looking towards his companion he continued. "Guess we can't walk around like we like." He turned his head back to Ichigo. "You'll be coming by this weekend, right?"
Ichigo grinned. "Of course." he said this sounding a bit excited. "You two just better be ready to get you're asses handed to you."
"Cocky kid." Shinji chuckled as he and Rose left him behind in the park.
Ichigo looked up at the clear blue sky and decided to head over to the shoten and question Urahara on where he planned to have that Rukia girl stay. It better not be where I think it is. he thought as an annoyed look crossed his face as he took off using his fastest flash step.
Verena had, for her own sanity, tuned Rukia out, for the most part, the moment she'd begun speaking on the walk to Urahara's shorten after school. Kon on the other hand, was actively talking to the Soul Reaper. She had begun to talk about how mods like Kon were illegal and that she'd been informed that they'd been destroyed. Que Kon going full throttle on her in explaining his situation. Verena was about to put in her ear buds when she saw Yoruichi in her cat form watching them. She waved Kon to continue onward as she went to see what the cat-woman wanted. Rukia eyeing her as she went over to the cat, stopping her conversation with Kon.
"Something wrong Yoruichi?" she asked as she bent down to the black cat and began to scratch her behind her ears.
"Keeping an eye on our new friend is all." she stated as she began to purr at the petting she was receiving.
Verena glared at her. "A warning would have been nice." she grumbled.
Yoruichi stopped her purring to eye Verena. "Where's the fun in that?" Standing Yoruichi began to walk towards the shoten porch where Rukia was waiting for Verena.
Kon opened the door just in time for them to hear Ichigo yell, "No way! She's not staying at my home!"
"Kurosaki-" Urahara tried to calm the Orange haired teen down.
"No." Ichigo growled at him.
Verena walked in, passing Rukia who was standing in the doorway of the shoten. Walking up to her brother, who was still in spirit form, she grasped his shihakusho by the back and threw him towards Kon. "Get in your damn body Ichi, then we'll talk."
Ichigo looked at her with wide eyes as he sat on the floor where he'd landed. "Sis?" he questioned her. Looking behind him, he saw both Kon and Rukia.
"Er...Ichigo-" Kon began but was interrupted when Ichigo stood up and knocked on the back of his head causing Kon's mod soul candy to pop out of Ichigo's body's mouth.
Once Ichigo was back in his body, he looked at his sister and was about to speak when she beat him to it. "Shut it Ichi." She turned her attention towards Urahara who looked a bit nervous at the glare that was presently on her face. "Why does Rukia have to stay with us, other u not wanting her around here?"
Urahara sighed. "It's not that I don't want her here, it's the fact that if she's caught with me, she will get into trouble." he told her sincerely. "However, if she's with you two, she might be able to learn that not everything she's heard about Quincy/Shinigami relations is true." He pushed his hat up slightly so that his eyes were a bit more visible. "Plus, I think she may be able to do something I can for you."
That got Ichigo's attention. "Like what?" he asked before receiving a glare from his sister to shut up.
"She might be able to help you unseal your zanpakuto." he spoke to Verena
Rubbing her bridge of her nose, Verena looked at Rukia. "We have to talk to mom about this, but if she says yes, we have rules you must abide by." she old The raven haired woman.
Rukia blinked in surprise. "Of course." she agreed.
Looking at Ichigo, Verena walked up to him before punching him in the face causing Rukia to gasp in horror. "Next time you leave me with that pervert all day, I'm going to kick your ass from one side of town to the other!" she yelled at him.
He frowned at her. "I had a few hollows-" he began only to get her foot to his face.
"I felt them!" she continued to yell. "They were weak ass hollows that you destroyed in a few minutes!"
Ichigo suddenly kicked her leg out from under her. "Well I was bored!" he yelled back to her after she'd fallen on to her butt.
Rukia's eyes were wide in shock as the two siblings began to yell and punch at each other over something so silly. She was so distracted she my noticed Urahara had to stand beside her. "Kuchiki, I do hope you can take of them for me." he said. "As young as these two are, they may be the only difference between life and death one day for us all."
Looking towards him, Rukia frowned at his words. "What do you mean?" she inquired with curiosity in her voice.
Urahara pulled his hat down a bit. "You shall see." he said as he walked off towards one of the other rooms in his shoten, leaving Rukia to wonder just what he meant and how could two human children be that important.
M-Angel: *grins* I love how many reviews this story is getting. I'm so happy that so many of you like my story. It makes me feel so happy about writing it. Also, I've decided that I'll be writing more than one chapter a week starting May as my gift to myself, but come June it'll go back to the once a week updates. This is due to May being my birthday month. I do this every year to one of my stories. Hope you guys like that idea. ^_^
Sweet no questions this time, however I do feel like I should say that the reason I made Uryu Ishida the Kurosaki's cousin is because I remember reading that the Ishida's adopted Masaki into their family. True this was an attempt to get Ryuken and Masaki to marry, but that adoption kind of made her like a sister to him in my mind or am I wrong in thinking this? Any way, with Ryuken and her marrying different people their kids would have been cousins due to the adoption thing. I hope that explains things a bit. ^_^